It Is This Jesus

Daily Reading: Romans 10

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.  For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10.9-13)

Devotional Thought: The way of salvation has always been the way of Jesus: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Since the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin (Hebrews 10.4), then Old Testament sacrifices did not remove sin.  They looked forward to the perfect sacrifice – Jesus Christ.  When those sacrifices were made in faith, God imparted the righteousness of Christ upon those who made them.  While the work of Jesus was not known to the Old Testament worshiper, they did call upon the name of "the Lord" and they were saved.

After the coming of Jesus, however, the name of "the Lord" took on a specific meaning as the God who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead – Jesus!  "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2.36).  We see the continuity between the Old Testament and the New in the person of Jesus Christ.  The Old Testament comes into focus and the New Testament is linked to the ageless Promise of God.  All of this in Jesus!

It is this Jesus whom we confess as Lord.  It is this Jesus whom we believe has been raised from the dead.  It is this Jesus through whom we are saved.  Thanks be to God!

Prayer: Jesus, you are Lord.  I believe that God raised you from the dead.  I thank you that I am saved in your name.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 22.1-5

1  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

4 In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.